In recent years, a car navigation apparatus and various domestic apparatuses which include an interactive user interface have been investigated and developed. In such interactive user interface, an apparatus which performs information processing of interaction with the user is referred to as an interaction information processing apparatus.
In the interaction information processing apparatus, information is acquired through interaction with the user, and processing based on the information is performed. For example, the processing is performed in such a manner that contents of the user's utterance is recognized by a voice recognition device, that a reply and a question are repeated by a voice synthesis device in correspondence with the recognized contents, and that the apparatus is operated according to the intention of the user. Note that “interaction” here includes not only interaction by voice but also interaction by a switch operation, interaction by an image, and the like.
The interaction information processing apparatus needs to perform natural interaction without giving a feeling of incongruity to the user. That is, it is important to increase the degree of freedom in utterance selection on the user's side.
Accordingly, there has been developed an interaction information processing apparatus in which an application program (execution module and hereinafter referred to as “AP”) configured to operate various devices and a program (interaction module) configured to perform interactive processing are independently provided, and which performs interaction processing on the basis of scenarios prepared for the AP (see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).
In the interaction information processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the interaction having a high degree of freedom on the user's side is realized in such a manner that the description of interaction processing itself is made independent of the AP, and the flow of interaction is prevented from being influenced by the processing procedure of the AP.
Further, in the interaction information processing apparatus described in Patent Document 2, there is described a technique by which the scenarios are organized into a hierarchical structure, and thereby a shift to a different AP can be naturally performed on the basis of user's utterance.
FIG. 7 is a figure showing a hierarchical structure of scenarios in the interaction information processing apparatus described in Patent Document 2. As the scenarios, there are prepared an A-AP scenario group, a B-AP scenario group, and a C-AP scenario group in correspondence with three APs. Also, a route scenario on the basis of which an application branching processing is performed is provided separately from the respective AP scenario groups. The application branching processing in the route scenario is to activate the AP in response to input information from the user, and to call the AP scenario group corresponding to the AP. Thus, in the case where while the processing in a certain AP scenario group is performed, the user instructs to shift the processing to the processing of the other AP scenario group, it is only necessary to shift the processing to the route scenario, and hence the shift to the different AP can be naturally performed.
Further, the application branching processing is made independent of the AP scenario groups, and is collected as the route scenario, whereby no matter how the number of APs is increased, the transition processing to the other AP scenario group needs not be described in each AP scenario group. As a result, it is possible to simplify the description of the AP scenario group.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-56694
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-296943
However, in the above described conventional interaction information processing apparatus, when a new application is added, it is necessary to create an AP scenario group relating to the application, and to add the definition of application branching processing between the created AP scenario group and the other AP scenario groups to the route scenario. As a result, work for the addition and deletion of the scenario becomes complicated.
Further, when instructions are simultaneously input to a plurality of the APs by the user's utterance, the plurality of APs cannot be simultaneously controlled. That is, when, while certain processing of the AP scenario group (A) is executed, an instruction about the processing of the other AP scenario group (B) is input by the user, the interaction information processing apparatus is required to interrupt the processing of the AP scenario group (A), and to shift to the processing of AP scenario group (B). Then, when the utterance about the processing content of the AP scenario group (A) is input by the user, the interaction information processing apparatus interrupts the processing of the AP scenario group (B) and shifts to the processing of the AP scenario group (A). In this case, however, the processing of the AP scenario group (A) is performed from the beginning, and hence it is necessary for the user to repeatedly input the instruction contents previously input by the user. Therefore, there is a problem from the viewpoint of convenience for the user.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an interaction information processing technique by which addition and deletion of scenarios can be easily performed, and which, even when a plurality of events are simultaneously input by the user, makes it possible to simultaneously perform the processing contents corresponding to the input events in a suitable manner.